විෂයානුකූල සන්නිවේදනය යනු ක්‍රමක්ද ? ( පළමුවන පාඩම ) - හැදින්වීම අංක 01

 

Study the organizational an advertising agency

by 

Hasini Dhananjala

BA(Honors)Mass Communication

Professional Diploma in Media & Advertising 

1. What is the meaning of an advertising agency ?

“ The work of a tailor is to collect the raw material, find matching thread, cut the cloth in desired shape, finally stich the cloth and deliver it to the customer. ”

As I think, An Advertising Agency is just like a tailor. It creates the ads, plans how, when and where is should be delivered and hands it over to the client. Advertising agencies are mostly not dependent on any organizations.

In short, An advertising agency is an independent firm formed for the purpose of rendering specialized services in advertising, such as preparing copy and layouts for advertisement, getting blocks made for layouts and getting the advertisement out through suitable media.

On the other hand, it is an independent agency engaged in the preparation and placing of advertisement for and on behalf of the advertisers. An advertising agency may be a sole proprietorship concern or a partnership firm or a joint stock company. But, it is an expert body, having various departments, manned by specialists, such as artists, copy writers and media experts, etc.

 

2.     The Principles of Advertising Ethics

The following are the principles that govern advertising ethics.

        - The advertising industry should maintain high ethical standards and share the objective of truth when serving the public.

             -  High personal ethics should be used when creating and disseminating information to people.

         - The advertising industry should clearly differentiate editorial and news content from paid ads to avoid confusing the public.

          -  All ads should clearly reveal if the researcher has received any payment from the brand.

        - Advertising should use discretion and care depending on the types of advertisements offered and the target audience.

    - Advertisers should safeguard customer’s discretion in marketing communications, and be straightforward to customers about gathering information.

        - Advertisers should comply with the advertising industry guidelines as well as follow the local, federal and state laws governing advertisement.

        - Advertisers should hold privet discussions about ethical concerns, and all participating members should freely express their ideas.

 

3.     Role of an advertising agency

Since 1841 when the concept of advertising agency took its birth, the agencies have evolved for their role in advertising process. To begin with, agencies were merely the space sellers, selling space to advertisers and were paid by the space owners, i.e. media houses like newspaper publishers.

With the change in scenario on demand and supply of media space and time, these agencies started working as agents for advertisers and became space buyers instead of space sellers. Advertisers pay the agencies for their services by way of fixed percentage usually 15 percent commission on media bills.

      -  Creating an advertise on the basis of information gathered about product.

       - Doing research on the company and the product and reactions of the customers.

     - Planning for type of media to be used, when and where to be used, and for how much time to be used.

       - Taking the feedbacks from the clients as well as the customers and then deciding the further line of action.

All companies can do this work by themselves. They can make ads, print or advertise them on televisions or other media places; Then why do they need advertising agencies? The reasons behind hiring the advertising agencies by the companies are:

           - The agencies are expert in this field. They have a team of different people field. They have a team of different people for different functions like copywriters, art directors, planners, etc.

             - The agencies make optimum use of these people, their experience and their knowledge.

            - They work with an objective and are very professionals.

            -  Hiring them leads in saving the costs up to some extent.

4.     5 Types of an advertising agency

01. In-House Agency

An ad department in a company whose main business is not advertising.

02. Full-Service Agency

Provides a wide range of services to meet a client’s complete  advertising needs.

03. Creative Boutique

Specializes in developing creative concepts, creative text, and artistic services.

04. Media-Buying Services

Specializes in buying media time and space like radio and television.

05. Interactive Agencies

Specializes in helping clients prepare ads for new interactive media like the internet. 

2.     10 Major Functions of Advertising agency

The major functions of an advertising agency can be divided into 10 parts. They are briefly discussed below.

01.  Attract Client

The first and foremost duty of an advertising agency is to get clients. Without clients, they have no work to work for. An advertisement agency has to attract clients and impress them with their work.

 In several ways, an advertising agency can attract clients. They have to expand their reach to get new clients. They can achieve that with the corporation of a digital marketing company. When people learn about an advertisement agency and their work, they will become interested in working with them.

 

02.  Research

A research team of an ad agency researches the market based on the client’s product. They research everything related to the product and analyze them for the best results. The factors that they research for a product are the following.

          Quality and features of the product

          Advantages and disadvantages of the product

          Client’s market situation

          Competitors market situation and their product

          Competition in the market

          Distribution method of the products

          Buyer’s preferences

 

After analyzing all these factors, an advertising agency plans its advertising campaign. Depending on the analysis, the advertising agency decides where they will advertise and what media will best suit the product.

 03.  Planning

After doing market research and after collecting all the data, the agency starts planning for advertising the product. As the advertising agency knows about competition in the market, competitors, and product details, they create a result-oriented advertising plan.

 After the plan is set, the agency presents it to the clients. Once the client approves the advertising plan, they move on to executing the plan.

04.  Prepare the creative Team

At this stage, the creative people come into play. Once a client is ready to go to execution, the advertisement agency gathers their skilled creative individuals for creating the ads. The team might include copywriters, illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, etc.

 The creative team then comes up with unique and appealing ideas that can attract customers. They are challenged to come up with a new concept with each new product advertising.

05.  Media Planning

After the research, the advertising agency selects the most suitable media for the client’s product. Selecting the appropriate media is a major responsibility of an advertising agency. Part of the research is done only for media planning.

Depending on the client’s product, its potential customer demographics, the media is selected. If the media selection is not right, the client might not reach the expected audience and face a huge loss. Planning and selecting the proper platform where the product will get the most exposure is essential for an advertising agency.

06.  Account Team

The accounts team closely works with the client and plans the overall process. They handle the communication between the client and the agency. Additionally, they set up the initial strategy for advertising and then distribute work accordingly. In most cases, the account management team selects and decides who will work on what.

 07.  Advertising Budget

An advertising agency lets its clients know the expected budget. They ensure the client’s money does not get wasted. They plan the budget to utilize the finances estimated to them properly. The budget also includes how much money in which sector is needed.

 With a proper budget, there is no risk of the client’s fund getting wasted or lost. Moreover, the agency also gets accurate payment for the work they put on.

 01.  Sales Promotion

Doing sales promotion is an important task for advertising agencies. They take the necessary steps to promote the client’s products to customers and dealers. Increasing sales is the main goal of advertising for a product. If sales promotion is not done correctly, there will be fewer sales.

02.  Coordination

Coordinating all the departments or different advertising work is the job of an advertising agency. They ensure that everything is working smoothly and everything is well corporated. Without coordination, the final result will not be satisfactory. Again, the communication gap can create an unorganized ad campaign. Therefore, coordination between teams is very important.

03.  Non-Advertising Function

There are also many functions done by an advertising agency that is not directly related to advertising. Some of them include,

          Fixing the price of a product

          Offering discounts or promo codes

          Designing product or packaging

          Designing trademarks, labels, etc

These functions might not be included in advertising. However, these tasks increase sales, which is the ultimate goal of an advertising agency.

An advertising agency gives overall support and service for increasing sales through advertising. The described ones are the most significant functions of an advertising agency. However, some parts might be divergent depending on the product and its brand.

2.     Factors Affecting the Selection of Advertising Agency

The advertisers should consider the following factors while selecting an advertising agency:

1. Agency Team – An agency has to possess management experts, market researchers, production managers, art directors, copy writers, media experts and others. The quality and expertise of these specialists team is considered while finalising the agency.

2. Range of Services Rendered – An agency may be full services agency or specialized agency. An advertiser should keep in mind the type of services required to be hired.

3. Research Activities – Advertising agency should consider the type of research activities conducted by companies. Because there are market research companies or advertising research companies or both.

4. Success Rate – The advertisers may look at the various accounts already handled by an agency and the success rate.

5. Need of Marketing Plans – It is necessary to see whether the assistance in preparing the marketing plans can be provided by the agency. In case of clients with new products, it is necessary to consider this factor.

6. Compatibility – It means the personal equation of the advertiser with the client. There can be perfect harmony and cordial relation between client and agency when there is compatibility.

7. Stability of Agency – The selection of agency depends upon the regular and stable services provided in that line. Its commitment in fulfilling the accepted tasks is noteworthy. The known agencies are preferred to the new ones.

8. Creativity – Advertising needs creativity. An agency having good team of creative persons is selected. Because, it is main factor in making advertisements different and attractive.

 

2.     Different Departments of Advertising Agency

 Every functional thing needs a proper structure for its smooth functioning. And no matter how unique the advertising world may be, it requires an organizational structure. Advertising agencies are structured to integrate the various services and tasks involved in creating and placing advertising. There may be differences in the organizational structure of an advertising agency based upon its size. On one hand, large agencies often have higher staff strength and departments assigned to develop the strategy, conduct research, create ads, and select the media. Whereas on the other hand, smaller and regional advertising agencies that are independently owned and operated provide the same fundamental tasks of account services, creative and media with a smaller team.

Advertising agency must have a suitable internal organizational structure to keep functioning properly with a smooth workflow. All advertising agencies don’t have a same organizational structure. Their structure varies from one another in relation to their size.

·         Contact Department

Contact department, also known as client department is in charge of keeping contact with their prospective clients of the advertising agency, mostly the advertisers.

 

The functions of the client department includes:

         Carrying the important information to the clients

         Efforts for retaining and creating new clients

         Building the bridge between the advertising agency and the client

         Helps in boosting revenues

         Promotion of their agency to create new prospects

         Efficient working for the quick growth of its organization

·         Media Department

Media Department of advertising agency is responsible for the choice of media. This department selects the best suitable medium for the ad agency that will be suitable for its clients.

Before the selection process, media department’s initial role is to find out about:

         The product’s nature

         The market competition

         Advertising budget of the client

         Media trends, etc.

The functions of media department are:

        It selects and uses the best media possible to communicate the ad message to the ultimate consumers

        It can also fail, as a wrong selection will result in the failure of the advertised product.

        Preparation of media plans for its clients

        Media scheduling

        Supervising the execution

        It keeps constant contact with the media and the client

·         Copy Department

The copy of the advertising agency is very crucial. It is called the heart of the ad as this conveys a direct message to the consumers creatively.

 Primary functions of the copy department are:

         Preparing an attractive copy for its clients and customers.

         Participate in brain- storming sessions and come up with ideas.

         Using their extraordinary skills of putting flair and fluent language while preparing a copy.

This department includes copywriters, copy-supervisors, and others.  The copy department works in close co-operation with the art department. Mostly, the copy department is the largest department of an advertising agency. It comprises of a hard-working team of qualified professionals and experienced staff.

·         Art Department

The art department consists of all the artists in an advertising agency. The advertisement finally becomes agreeable and acceptable because of these people in the art department. These people use the principles of real art, probably on software, as a guideline or base to present a product to the targeted audience. The personals working in the art department are known as the Art Directors.

The functions of the art department are:

         Transform the idea that the client wants to convey, into a simple and beautiful imagery.

         Preparing layouts and visuals for the clients.

         To work closely with the copywriters for developing the visual messages.

         Making painted bulletins, posters, car cards, illustrations, slogans, etc.

·         Production Department

Once, after the copy and art is finalized, the advertisement is sent to the production department for further process. Both the departments, copy and art, create the basic model of the advertisement. The production department takes the advertisement into its final stage. A production manager heads the production department.

Functions of the production department are:

         Produces the final advertisements for the markets.

         Making contacts in the industry for the easy carrying out of tasks.

         Assemble the typographic design patterns, engraved photos, illustrations, copy, etc. and prepare the final advertisement.

         Sending the final product to its clients and get the approval.

         Once the approval is received, then it can be sent for final printing or production for the market.

         Keeping them updated about the latest trends and technologies.

·         Research Department

Without knowing the 5 W’s and 1 H of the market, you can never run a successful advertisement campaign. The research department in advertising collects information about the market, market competition, market trends, products and services, competitors, consumer behavior, media trends, new trends in advertising, so on.

The success of the advertising agency’s advertisement campaign depends upon how hard the research team has done its work. A right direction and the right approach are very important for a successful ad campaign.

Functions of the research department include:

         Carrying out research and deriving out useful information.

         Critically analyze the information, which they have derived.

         Apply the results in different ways.

         Agency makes use of above information for executing an excellent ad campaign.

·         Accounting and Finance Department

As the name suggests, the accounting and finance department of an advertising agency looks into the financial and accounting matters of the organization.

The functions of this department are:

         To generate and keep a record of the invoices that the company incurs or gains.

         Sending out regular reminders to the clients for un-cleared payments.

         Clear accounts before or within the due dates.

         Issue payments to vendor parties within or on the due date.

         Keep a track of the monthly and yearly accounts.

         Deposit the government fees on time.

         Manage salary accounts of the employees.

·         Public Relations (PR) Department

The chief responsibility of a public relations (PR) department is to maintain a cordial relationship among three parties, namely, advertising agency, clients, and media. Every organization may not have a separate department for PR hence, it becomes important for the other members of the organization to build cordial relations with clients and customers.

The functions of the PR department are:

         Redressing the grievances of the consumers.

         Taking feedback from clients and customers and working on it immediately.

         Serve as a road between the advertising agency and the other parties.

         Maintain a repo, by maintaining the good will.

·         Office Management

The office management department can also be called the HR department of the advertising agency.

Their functions include:

         Recruiting the office staff.

         Carrying out training and development of the newly hired staff.

         Carry out promotions of the deserving candidates.

         Provide welfare facilities to staff.

         Filing and record keeping of all the essential documents.

It is not necessary for an advertising agency to have all these different departments, depending on their scale. But even the small- sized or mid- sized agencies have people for the functions of all the departments. They can hire multi- taskers for that matter.  The departments can be merged, but these are the basic functions that the organizational structure of any advertising agency follows.

 References

1.      https://www.managementstudyguid.com/advertising-agencies.htN7

2.      https://www.wconomicsdiscassion.net/advertising-agencies/31797R

3.      https://www.cleverism.com/lexicon/advertising-ethics/.

4.      https://www.wanderglobe.org/10-major-function-of-advertising-agency/2.

5.     https://itsaugust.com/organizational-structure-advertising-agency/.